Hellaphunt wrote:There's a short story I can't remember the title or author of, but it's about a race that's telepathic to the degree that their sub/conscious, thoughts, emotions, everything are shared without loss. A product of this is evident in their architecture and other designs to be utilitarian, sans aesthetics, because the shared mind leaves nothing to inspire art. One's professions is chosen by the collective because it's understood by both parties what's best. Can a society like this know conflict among each other? Perhaps with their own wildlife, but with each other, enough to develop weapons and everything else that goes along with war?

If they are meshed to that degree, i don't know if it's reasonable to talk about individuals any more. They'd be more like the cells of our bodies. Maybe ants &c. (or Borg) are model for that. It would be interesting, since they'd know violence against other species, but they'd have, as you say, not developed weapons beyond those needed for hunt and pest control. If they have time enough, they could probably copy the designs from the species they encounter. Or throw rocks. You don't need that much sophistication when you have the high ground.

There wouldn't be any arms races to advance the technology of war as such, but tools for hunting, farming, and mining can be used as deadly weapons in any case.

In other words, they might not develop warfare, but they would still have developed weapons.

Edit: Also, though they may not be competitive per se, a species like ours could still see them as a deadly enemy to defeat, if their idea of cooperation was assimilation into their hivemind.

Unless stated otherwise, I do not care whether a statement, by itself, constitutes a persuasive political argument. I care whether it's true.---If this post has math that doesn't work for you, use TeX the World for Firefox or Chrome

Hellaphunt wrote:There's a short story I can't remember the title or author of, but it's about a race that's telepathic to the degree that their sub/conscious, thoughts, emotions, everything are shared without loss. A product of this is evident in their architecture and other designs to be utilitarian, sans aesthetics, because the shared mind leaves nothing to inspire art. One's professions is chosen by the collective because it's understood by both parties what's best. Can a society like this know conflict among each other? Perhaps with their own wildlife, but with each other, enough to develop weapons and everything else that goes along with war?

This isn't your story but the Forever War ending follows that conceit. The antagonist is a natural clone with one consciousness. It also talks about some of the consequences of relativistic flight.

You really should read The Mote In Gods Eye. It parallels this conversation quite nicely. Pay special attention to a conversation between the characters Benjamin Fowler and Anthony Horvath in the concluding parts of the book.

Somebody had mentioned an invasion by a virus. I offer The Andromeda Strain.